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Chapter 64 - Chapter 64: Spirit Hound and Spirit Steed

Immediately, a second and third strand of Fatefire streamed into the furnace, making it heavier and heavier. 

Most of the Fatefire within the Flood-Dragon Life Candle had already been consumed to temper the Tsushima Divine Seal, leaving little stock left. 

Jing Qian managed to draw out only six strands of Fatefire before the red candle was completely exhausted. 

The faint ember that remained was the foundation of the Fate Furnace itself and could not be moved. 

The candle's glow withered rapidly until, at last, it spat out the suspended Tsushima Divine Seal. 

Jing Qian acted without hesitation. The Tushita Furnace lashed out with its inner flames, a tongue of fire wrapping around the seal and dragging it into the furnace. 

Clang! 

The lid snapped shut, sealing the divine seal within. 

From inside, he could hear the muffled clangs and rumbles of the struggling artifact. 

At this point, the furnace held six strands of Fatefire, more than a hundred Longevity lampfires, and one Spiritual Construct seal, each priceless on its own. 

Under the Tushita Furnace's influence, their combined power was wildly magnified. The Fatefire and lampfires burned nearly ten times faster than usual, while the Divine Seal itself was roasted from both sides by the flames. 

When Jing Qian tried to draw the furnace back into his sea of consciousness, he found it refused to obey. His spirit-sea simply couldn't bear the crushing weight of so much power. 

So he changed tactics, grasping the furnace in both hands, he twisted space with the might of his Sumeru Life Pattern, and successfully shifted it into his Void Domain. 

At last, he had claimed the ultimate spoils of this war. 

Exhaling in relief, Jing Qian leapt up from the pit. 

The half-burned candle stub was beyond his ability to harvest, so he ignored it. 

With a flicker of light, he slipped into the dimensional void and crossed beyond Tsushima Island. 

There he lingered, watching from outside the Void Domain until he saw a streak of azure light race back across the sky. Only then did he leave in peace. 

His plan had worked perfectly: raiding the enemy's "home base" had successfully lured Blue Blood Lantern back. 

Now it was only a matter of how Su Min'er was faring on her end. 

Meanwhile, on Jiangzhu Island, the unconscious Su Min'er faced yet another calamity. 

Youzang, one of the Dragon-Elephant cultivators who had narrowly survived, had hidden himself at the edge of the battlefield. After observing for a long while and confirming that she was unconscious, he finally dared to creep closer. 

Shrouded within his Scorpion-Woman Dharma Manifestation, he extended a long, venomous tail across a hundred meters, slowly reaching for Su Min'er. 

If he could kill this fledgling ninth-rank cultivator, the priceless Spiritual Construct she commanded would be his. 

His heart pounded, attention fixed entirely on his prey. 

Suddenly, a searing pain shot through his backside. 

Whipping around, he saw a tiny puppy, no bigger than his palm, clamped tightly onto his rear. 

Even his Dharma Manifestation hadn't stopped this bizarre little hound. 

Startled and enraged, Youzang reached to grab it only for a silver-white unicorn horn to lance through his back from behind. 

His vision went black. 

He, a Dragon-Elephant master, had been slain by a one-foot-long unicorn foal. 

The puppy and foal immediately rushed to Su Min'er's side, circling her anxiously. 

Then the hound opened its mouth and spoke: 

"We're done for! The Construct Child's lifespan is drained; she's going to die!" 

"If the Marshal finds out, he'll kill us both!" 

The unicorn foal snapped back: 

"This is your fault! You just had to raid that flood-dragon's nest, wasted so much time!" 

"We even left the picked vanguard behind, so now there's no one else to blame!" 

The hound's ears drooped in dismay. 

"How was I supposed to know that flood-dragon had already formed baleful essence? I nearly lost my life in there! Now if the Construct Child really dies, we'll both be condemned as traitors." 

The foal snorted: 

"Take her to Purple Bamboo Island. It's closer to Hunzhou. Sell your dog-whip to the Cihang Nunnery and trade for a drop of Nectar Dew to save her." 

The hound scowled but said nothing. In the next instant, it expanded into a massive black dog, a zhang tall, clamped down on the Martial General – Left Registrar of Fate Spiritual Construct, and carried it away in a beam of light. 

The unicorn foal grew as well, transforming into a winged, horned dragon-steed. It lowered its back, placed Su Min'er upon it, and soared into the sky. 

Thus ended Jiangzhu Island's three-hundred-year legacy. 

The Fate Furnace collapsed, the land sank into the sea, and the bloodline was scattered. 

Hunzhou was left with only fourteen Fate Islands, its foundation gravely weakened. 

With the Yin Year approaching, the loss of a Fate Island meant countless more deaths to come. 

As for Blue Blood Lantern, he returned to Tsushima Island in a single day's flight. 

But when he saw the devastation his island stripped bare, its treasures plundered, its foundation shattered, he could only tremble with fury. 

Before his departure, Tsushima Island had burned with a Blue Furnace, rich in strength, its cultivators powerful, ranking among Hunzhou's top five. 

By the time he returned, its people were dead, its lamps extinguished, its furnace collapsed, its divine seal stolen, looted clean like an empty nest. 

Staring at the last ember of the Flood-Dragon Life Candle, barely flickering, Blue Blood Lantern felt his blood boil with rage. 

The remaining dragon fat would not last even three more years. 

The tiny ember left in the Flood-Dragon Life Candle could never last until the next Yin Year. 

Without the support of Fatefire, Blueblood Lantern could only imagine how much of his own lifespan he would have to burn away just to fill the deficit. 

At this moment, Blueblood Lantern had only one thought in mind: vengeance. 

The thief who had broken into the Tsushima Shrine was gone, but Blueblood Lantern had ways to hunt him down. 

He transformed into a great blue lantern, its heavy flame spreading across the ruins of the shrine. 

Under the eerie glow, countless strange shadows appeared on the broken earth. 

They were short, barely five feet tall, and every one of them belonged to Jing Qian. 

Though Jing Qian's body had long since vanished, the lantern light revealed his footprints of shadow everywhere. 

Blueblood Lantern muttered an incantation under his breath. A Hyakki Yagyō Scroll, the Parade of a Hundred Ghosts, unfurled before him. 

The shadows on the ground were drawn irresistibly into the painted scroll, merging until, in the center of the picture, Jing Qian's silhouette took form. 

Then the hundred painted ghosts lunged upon the shadow to devour it. 

Blueblood Lantern focused his senses, then leapt as a streak of blue light into the ghostly scroll itself. 

... 

Far below, in the deep sea, Jing Qian raced toward Jiangzhu Island with all his strength. 

He had to see if Su Min'er had survived. Time was against him. Blueblood Lantern could return at any moment. 

But suddenly a chill gripped his heart, a dread premonition of doom. 

He flared the power of his World's Insight to the utmost. Below, in the depths of the sea, his own shadow shimmered with sorcerous light. 

One after another, monstrous ghosts clawed their way out of his shadow. 

Each had the strength of a perfected Dragon-Elephant cultivator. 

But worse still 

Amid the host of specters, a blue lantern burst forth. Blueblood Lantern himself had followed Jing Qian's shadow across realms, breaking through space to arrive! 

To command shadow was his birthright. Leaving a shadow behind in the shrine was as good as handing him a tether to Jing Qian's soul. 

The lantern blazed even beneath the sea, its light pinning down Jing Qian's form. 

Against such a Longevity master, the moment one was illuminated, escape became impossible. 

Yet to Blueblood Lantern's surprise, the figure beneath his lantern burst like a bubble at first touch. 

For Jing Qian had already slipped into the void at the instant the ghosts appeared, leaving only an afterimage behind. 

He fled too swiftly, abandoning a phantom to take his place. 

Blueblood Lantern lost the trail but showed no concern. He hovered above the waves, waiting calmly. 

The little rat could run wherever he pleased—so long as he cast a shadow again, he could never escape the lantern's hunt. 

... 

Within the dimensional void, Jing Qian exhaled hard. 

He had underestimated the divine arts of a Longevity cultivator, nearly falling prey to the trap. 

Now pinned between realms, he dared not emerge again. 

Peering outward, he saw Blueblood Lantern still prowling, and held his breath, withdrawing deeper into the void. 

The Sumeru-space was vast and empty, with only his Void Domain anchored at its heart. 

No matter how far he traveled within the dimension, turning back would always show the Void Domain close at hand, strange and uncanny. 

The enemy was corpse-watching, waiting outside; he could not emerge here. 

So Jing Qian fled through the void, pacing out a distance of thirty miles before daring to step back into reality. 

But the instant he appeared, his shadow flared with light again. He had no choice but to dive back into the void. 

This time, he looked closely through World's Insight and saw the truth: 

Spiritual Construct: Path of Shadow-Chasing 

Requirements to Subdue: Pattern of Ghosts and Gods 

Lifespan Burden: Nine Hours per Day 

Blueblood Lantern was wielding a Spiritual Construct to hunt him! 

Was this level of extravagance really necessary…? 

Unable to shake the pursuit and unable to linger too long in the void either, Jing Qian darted back into his Void Domain. 

Here, at least, he was safe. 

It gave him time to adjust, to take stock of his state, and to count the spoils of war. 

The Void Domain had expanded greatly, swollen from the swallowed treasures of Jiaotu, Jorōgumo, and Akashita. 

No longer cramped like a coffin, it now stretched as spacious as a chamber. 

At its center stood the black jade furnace, alongside three heaps of plunder. 

Sorting through the Dragon-Elephants' possessions, Jing Qian pulled out gold and silver worth one hundred and fifty-four taels, a fortune large enough to buy a ninth-rank treasure ship. 

The rest was common trash; he tossed it aside. 

Finally, he approached the Tushita Furnace, studying it intently. 

Within lay a treasure of unimaginable worth, one of the rare Spiritual Constructs, the privilege of Longevity masters. 

He had seen a few before: the terrifying Dragon of Li, the Su clan's Martial General – Left Registrar of Fate, each miraculous in its own way. 

Now, here was the Tsushima Divine Seal. His expectations soared. 

Placing both hands on the black jade furnace, he prepared to lift the lid. 

"Hmm?" 

Jing Qian was stunned to discover that the lid of the furnace was sealed shut; he couldn't open it at all. 

Wrapping both arms around the black jade Furnace, he tried to lift it, but no matter how much strength he used, it would not budge. 

How could this be? This was my own soul-bound treasure, my Spirit Furnace of Life, why won't it obey me? 

At once, he unfurled the power of World's Insight, probing into the Furnace with keen perception. What he saw made his heart jolt: 

[Life Furnace: Void Furnace (Evolving)] 

[Rank: White-Flame Furnace] 

[Foundation: Tushita Furnace] 

[Furnace Spirit: Tsushima] 

What?! 

When did it start kindling a Fatefire of its own? And why did it swallow my Divine Seal Spiritual Construct? 

To his astonishment, the Tushita Furnace was indeed burning inside his Void Domain, forming the prototype of a true Life Furnace. 

Though not yet fully evolved, Jing Qian could clearly sense faint strands of qi flowing into it from the Void Domain, feeding the newborn flame. 

This Furnace was claiming the Void Domain itself as its Fate Island, drawing upon the earth-vein of that miniature realm. 

The founding of an island and the kindling of a Furnace, events of the highest sanctity, had begun almost casually, as though by instinct. 

The Void Domain was still fragile, weaker even than Jing Qian's own power to refine life-essence. Yet it undeniably possessed the potential of a true Fate Island. 

Sitting cross-legged, Jing Qian focused on his two golden-rooted Life Patterns. 

Within his sea of consciousness, Sumeru and the Tushita Furnace were quietly linking together, threads of law and meaning circulating between them. 

All of his White-Fang life-essence swirled around the pair in a steady cycle. 

This was the budding shape of a Dharma Manifestation. 

His foundation was too deep: three Golden-Rooted Patterns anchored within him. Even without a guiding cultivation method, his path was naturally evolving toward the next realm. 

Immersed in the flow of meaning within his Life Patterns, he drifted into deep meditation. 

Meanwhile, before him, the Void Furnace continued to evolve, drawing breath from the Void Domain itself, its bond growing deeper with every moment. 

He remained in this state for an entire day. When he emerged from meditation, his comprehension of the two Patterns had deepened greatly. 

While the Void Furnace slowly gestated, Jing Qian stepped into the Stele of Fate Space. 

Outside the safe zone, a crippled crocodile-dragon loomed, and beside it stood three towering Dharma Manifestations, the perfect food stockpile. 

At last, he turned his mind toward the Stele, reviewing the increasingly magnificent display of his own cultivation record: 

[Host: Jing Qian] 

[Lifespan: 201 years] 

[Life-Essence: 54.13] (White Fang) 

[Life Patterns: Sumeru (Gold), World's Insight (Gold), Tushita Furnace (Gold), Sword Fang (Violet 3.65/10), Tidal Wave (Violet 1.03/10), Soul-Weaver (Blue), Lifespan (3 hours)] 

[Fate Arts: Dragonstride, Rune Imprinting, Lotus-Seeding] 

[Life-Casting Opportunity: 35] 

After the battle, both his lifespan and his essence had surged, and his constellation of Patterns was far more complete. 

Especially Sword Fang and Tidal Wave, both racing toward the Violet-Eye rank, their power swelling. 

He felt more confident than ever, he thought, to stand against an ordinary Dragon-Elephant cultivator. 

But compared to that decrepit lantern of Longevity outside, he was still far behind. 

Turning back to the edge of the safe zone, Jing Qian summoned his Sword Fang, letting the flying blade hover in his hand. 

Since its ascension, he had yet to test it in battle. Now was the perfect chance, with these spirit-phantoms as practice dummies. 

He channeled his essence. A vicious sword-light lanced out, striking the Jiaotu phantom square in its weak node. 

The whole ghostly form split apart instantly. 

The blade curved in midair, drew an arc, and plunged straight into the exposed core, slaying the Jiaotu outright. 

Jing Qian marveled at the sheer sharpness of Sword Fang, and at the beauty of striking from afar. 

In this Stele-Space, he always had the initiative; distance was short, and with the flying sword, he could slay Dragon-Elephant-level foes without ever stepping beyond the safety line. 

The pure life-essence flooding into his soul made him shiver with delight. 

Sitting down, he continued to wield the Sword Fang, harvesting the three Dragon-Elephant phantoms. 

Sword-light filled the air like drifting clouds, each strike guided by World's Insight to a vital point. 

The swordsmanship was graceful yet merciless, as though he were a veteran sword immortal, but in truth, it was his very first battle with a flying sword. 

Jiaotu, Akashita, and Jorōgumo all proved to be exquisite whetstones for his blade. 

He could feel the sword-intent of his past life merging seamlessly with Sword Fang, uniting man and blade into one, amplifying its might. 

Flying sword mastery had become his core offensive power, his upper limit in battle. 

Since he could not yet return to the real world, Jing Qian immersed himself fully in the Stele-Space, beginning a new phase of cultivation. 

The three Dragon-Elephant souls poured out essence, knowledge, and insight without end. 

With World's Insight sorting it all, the resources were absorbed with perfect efficiency, far better than his own mind alone could manage. 

Three full days and nights passed before he had drained them completely. 

When at last he emerged from deep practice, his cultivation and comprehension had leapt to a new level. 

A force radiated from within him, leaving him renewed, as though reborn. 

His White-Fang life-essence coiled tightly around the embryonic Dharma Manifestation, ready to condense. 

He felt certain he could soon forge Azure-Wing Essence and step into the Dragon-Elephant realm. 

This was the confidence of one whose foundation was complete. 

Returning his mind to the Void Domain, Jing Qian saw the Void Furnace still evolving, though he could now feel a surging fire within it. 

His own Fatefire was forming. 

Anticipation filled him when the first spark truly ignited; he would burn himself once again to set his destiny in stone. 

The Void Domain was still weak, its supply of qi far too thin, making the evolution of the Life Furnace painstakingly slow. 

All he could do was wait in patience. 

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